Kannonzaki

Well, not much has been going on in the world of SAHM (Stay-at-home-mom). I suppose I've just been keeping to my regular routine and popping in for visits at my husbands office way too many times!

I have been trying to pick up running. My short term goal is to make it all the way to the base (about 4K from our house). However, with the excessive amount of humidity in the air it's proven difficult. I decided to take a break yesterday because I was super sore and because one of my girlfriends, Patrice, suggested going to Kannonzaki park near our house, so some of us moms drove over to Kannonzaki and let the kids run wild.

The gorgeous hydrangeas were in full bloom and despite the bugs flying around, it was a great place to take the toddler boys & 2 adorable baby twins! There is a huge roller slide there. Now, when I say huge I mean this thing winds all the way down a cliff and it takes about 50 steps to walk back up and do it again. It looks as though Japan is the only country I've been to that has these slides and they are a real hit with kids. This was the only slide that I've seen that supplies mats while you slide down. This causes you to go screaming down the side of this cliff at mach speeds. I suppose I could equate it with maybe using one of those plastic saucers to go sledding. It leaves you only the soles of your shoes to use as breaks. I held Amy's son, Chris, down the slide. Amy held her daughter, Courtney, & Patrice held her baby son, Jack. Since Josh had to keep up with his friend Timmy, he decided to go down all by himself like a big boy. Amy had brought her dog Buddy. Buddy is a herding dog by nature. As we were walking through the park he made sure to stay in the middle of the group and if someone lagged behind, Buddy would stay with the straggler until they caught up. As we went down the slide the first time, Buddy barked in desperation as he watched us all slide down the hill. After we all made it down we looked up to see Buddy braving the slide to make sure that we were all together. The second time around Josh bit the dust and slid down the hill with a bloody nose. He cried for about 2 minutes (I was more upset then he was) then exclaimed, "I go again!" and ran up the stairs to catch up with Timmy. After the boys went about 5 times, we moms were ready to go home and hit the showers! Everyone was caked with sweat and dirt. What a fun-filled morning. It's something we've got to do again! Just a day in the life of a Mom. Never boring.

Before heading off to Kannonzaki that morning I was checking my email when I started hear a loud meowing coming from outside. I glance out the window from upstairs trying to spot the culprit but saw nothing. This went on for about 10-20 minutes. I looked out the window again to see a brown and grey cat planted right outside our porch. Thinking that it was a cat in heat, I ran downstairs and grabbed my broom to get it away. After all, the last thing I wanted was a verral cat screaming at my door all day. I opened the door only to see a small kitten running off into the bushes. My heart sank. After trying to coax it back with no success, I closed the door, secretly hoping to hear that meow again. Sure enough, I did and this time I came out with milk. Still no success. Unfortunately for me, time was up. I still had to run some errands before meeting the moms at Kannonzaki. I loaded Josh and myself into the car with crazy visions of taking in a stray cat and hoping against all hope that it would come back to stay. I came back from errands only to find no sign of the cute kitten and again, no sign today. I don't think I'll forget those little blue eyes for a while though.

CBS News, the Masters of Geography

It seems as though the folks that run the CBS News website didn't work their way up the corporate ladder by taking extra geography lessons. Here's a recent story from the CBS world news webpage. Notice anything wrong with the picture, as it relates to the headline?


The actual story from CBS has been updated with a more representative picture and a note at the bottom indicating that they apologize for the blunder.